The Blue Fairy Book was the first volume in the series and so it contains some of the best known tales, taken from a variety of sources not only from Grimm, but exciting adventures by Charles Perrault and Madame D Aulnoy, the Arabian Nights, and other stories from popular traditions Here in one attractive paperbound volume with enlarged print are Sleeping Beauty, RumThe Blue Fairy Book was the first volume in the series and so it contains some of the best known tales, taken from a variety of sources not only from Grimm, but exciting adventures by Charles Perrault and Madame D Aulnoy, the Arabian Nights, and other stories from popular traditions Here in one attractive paperbound volume with enlarged print are Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltzkin, Beauty and the Beast, Hansel and Gretel, Puss in Boots, Trusty John, Jack and the Giantkiller, Goldilocks, and many other favorites that have become an indispensable part of our culture heritage.All in all, this collection contains 37 stories, all arranged in the clear, lively prose for which Lang was famous Not only are Lang s generally conceded to be the best English versions of standard stories, his collections are the richest and widest in range His position as one of England s foremost folklorists as well as his first rate literary abilities makes his collection invaluable in the English language.

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I always loved fairytales when I was a little kid––and no, not the silly watered-down ones. I liked the real, hardcore shit. The fairytales where everyone dies. Those are the good ones. Those Disney princess movies always bored me. (Except I loved Beauty and the Beast, because Belle isn't a dumbass and she reads a lot––like meeee!)Anyway, if I recall correctly, I had at least one of Andrew Lang's fairytale collections when I was a kid maybe a couple of them. Then, this past month, I had [...]

This collection contains many classic fairy tales and only a few that were new to me. Some stories are better than others, but mostly good. I was pleased to recognise some of the stories that I remembered from my childhood and that I had forgotten (Toads and Diamonds, Trusty John, The story of the prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou). Since the tales seem to be quite long, one hopes the littlies will have the patience to listen to them till the end or fall asleep, which isn’t a bad outcome ei [...]

What I did while reading this book was I wrote short little notes for each story, so that in the future I could look back and see which stories were worth reading again, or recommending. I gave each story a mini-rating of 1-3 asterisks (*), with 1 being the "horrible" and 3 being "just okay". Overall though, I was severally disappointed in this book of fairy tales.The Bronze Ring: *This story was slightly shocking. The way they dealt with the evil man in the end was a violent. I did not like the [...]

"She lives in a castle which lies east of the sun and west of the moon"Of all the fairy book spectrum, I'm glad I started with blue. More than a few old favourites in here, in particular the stories East of the Sun, West of the Moon, and Beauty and the Beast. It's lovely regardless, I think, to fall every now and then into a world where, even before first sight, people can fall so deeply in love that they can't eat or drink (view spoiler)[not the sort of behaviour that ought to be encouraged, I [...]

Lang wrote some of the stories, but he largely edited this collection. Like the Grimms, but far more honest, Lang used translations provided by his wife and other women (he thanks the women in his introduction, gives credit to original sources at the end of the tales).It makes this collection, the first, rather interesting. By and large, the stories are mostly from the Grimms and French Salons. They include well known favorites like "Cinderella" but also lesser known ones such as "The Yellow Dwa [...]

From the famed The Blue Fairy Book, I learned that:1. If you are a girl, and you are "beautiful", so amazingly pretty that sometimes, there are just no words to describe you, you might just survive whatever is coming at you next, because2. The villains can never defeat the good, because someway or other, there will always, out of the blue, and completely deus ex machina-like, pop out these magical items that might just save the beautiful girl's ass(oops, I mean, her cute behind). 3. You just hav [...]

It would appear that Lang compiled these stories "as is" without any editing. Some were very good and some were very bad. It didn't help that the narrator of my audiobook version got very screechy with some of her voices.Still, it was a fascinating look at some of the original versions of famous tales. In this book's version of Sleeping Beauty, she and the prince had to hide their kids from his mother who was an ogre who loved to eat children. (!) In Red Riding Hood no hunter comes in to save th [...]

3 stars for the audiobook; 4 stars for the book itself. See my review of the Kindle edition for a brief review of the book.While I thought that Angele Masters did some very good voices (and a very good Scots accent for the last two tales), there were recurring mouth sounds (mostly sounds of swallowing) that put me off. Glad that I picked up this audiobook as a free Whispersync deal, but that brings me to another problem I had with this audiobook. It didn't actually sync with the Kindle book prop [...]

Hmmm. I loved this book and fairy tales in general when I was a kid bur retracing them only makes me a little sad at the realization that they are pretty much tales of horrible family betrayal and that the real moral of many of them is that as long as you are the most beautiful princess and the youngest then it will probably turn out ok.

I've been working my way through this for about five years. I'm sure I read it when I was younger, but fairy tales never get old for me. I mainly listened to it on my Kindle at night around bedtime, and that was a great format. Fairy tales have some good lessons for the listener. Perseverance, doing good deeds for others, being clever, and to never underestimate one's circumstances. Poor people can become kings, queens, princes or princesses. They can also be disturbing in how children and many [...]

My main takeaway from Lang's "Blue Fairy Book"? "Happily ever after" is far from the norm! These tales include grizzly murders, playing on insecurities, forced marriages, abductions, and maniacal little people. Take "Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess" as an example.If you had a complex about your de Bergerac-like nose, how'd you like to have a prattling fairy and dinner host say: "My dear Prince, might I beg you to move a little more that way, for your nose casts such a shadow that I [...]

This is the one I personally owned as a child. As the very first, it is chock-full of the standard issue, top-20 pop charts tales -- among others. Heavily from Norwegian, French, and German sources.Though even with the popular ones, he may include things you don't know. He follows Perrault in Sleeping Beauty in the Woods, and so the story does not end when she wakes up. Beauty and the Beast has significant dreams for Beauty.And some ones not too familar. "Why the Sea Is Salt." "Snow White and Ro [...]

The book assembled a wide range of tales, with seven from the Brothers Grimm, five from Madame d'Aulnoy, three from the Arabian Nights, and four Norse stories, among other sources."The Bronze Ring" - According to Lang's preface, this version of this fairy tale from the Middle East or Central Asia was translated and adapted from Traditions Populaires de l'Asie Mineure by Carnoy et Nicolaides. (Paris:Maison-neuve, 1889.)"Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess" - a French fairy tale from Le P [...]

I'm excited to be re-reading these!I appear to have bookmarked (on my e-reader) the story of Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, perhaps because the female Fairy has a large role. In fact, I had sort of forgotten what a significant percentage of traditional fairy tales - even western ones - have active women using agency. Hint: They're mostly not the ones that people today are aware of, because they're not the ones retold in the media.Anyway, more of my bookmarks: I really liked The Ta [...]

The stories in this collection have an amazing range, and Lang is good enough to cite his source for almost all of his tales. There are 37 stories total, including six selections from Grimm, five from Perrault, a couple Scots tales (in dialect, sort of), a few British traditionals, three from the Arabian Nights, the part of Gulliver's Travels about Lilliput, and a full retelling of the Perseus myth with different names. It's almost overwhelming.A few of them are really unique ones.“The History [...]

I reread this book that I read many years ago. There is a selection of some of the best known fairytales as well as more rare ones, all in their ORIGINAL versions which is NOT the same as the saccharine sweet clean-up Disney-ized versions. If you want to read the real deal, try out this book of the original stories the way they were meant to be read.

I'm a big fan of fairytales, and it was fun to read some of the originals. I also found it interesting to see how some of the same themes and tropes were used in different tales. Definitely recommend this one.

The book " The blue fairy " is wrote for a wide spread of audience. It has many stories in it. There is no specific location of the stories. Some are in kingdoms and some are in modern times. The book begins with a story about a gardeners son who falls in love with the kings daughter and she with him. Throughout the story the boy comes to different challenges to over come to win the princesses hand in marriage. These include wining a race with the kings closest friends son, who also wishes to ma [...]

This are old-school, whimsical fairy tales, where the pretty farmer's daughter is taken away by the talking white bear to his castle, and has to befriend the North Wind to rescue her love. It's fun to read. But there's no depth of character or even really any morals to the tales. Just fantastical whimsy.

Listened to a podcast from Sara McKenzie about Fairy Tales and it got me motivated to get back into them with my children. We started listening to this audio on the tablet during lunchb 11/3/17Some of these stories had us saying huh? But most of them were goodb 12/8/17

So, here's the thing about reviewing the Rainbow Fairy Books: essentially, once you've read one, you've read them all. So in the past, I have had little to say, considering the fact above as well as the fact that well, they're fairy tales. How am I to write a review about fairy tales? It is a very hard task indeed. But here I am, finally writing as comprehensive a review as possible. As a disclaimer, I would like to point out that this will be my only review of Lang's work, but it applies to all [...]

The first book in the collection. There's so many great stories in here. The stories in here are mostly the famous ones - Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and my personal favorite, Madame d'Aulnoy. So many of the classics are here.My favorite stories:- The Bronze Ring- The Yellow Dwarf (probably my favorite fairy tale with a sad ending)- The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood (based on Perrault's version and includes the second half of the story with the prince's ogress mom)- Cinderella (this was my favor [...]

I read this as a teenager, at a time when I'd been 'kicked out' of the adult section of my local, home town library. (Years earlier I'd been told I couldn't take books out of the boy's section of the children's section of the library. And yes, this was in a fairly progressive small town in southeastern MA. Go figure.)Anyhow, after I got it sorted out that I was fifteen, not twelve, I started taking out the colored fairy tale books one after another. I do not recall how far I got, at least up to [...]

Favorites: Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, The Yellow Dwarf, The Master Maid, Why the Sea is Salt, The White Cat, the Water-Lily. The Gold-Spinners, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks, The Wonderful Sheep, Prince Darling, The Princess on the Glass Hill. Most of the stories have some magical element or character I like, but is overly violent, or I have trouble relating to a character's actions or motives. The hero of the Bronze Ring, for example, strikes me as very selfish; didn't Littl [...]

I was leaning towards a four star, but couldn't make up my mind. I enjoyed the collection of fairy tales. There were many fairy tales that were introduced to me and ones I heard throughout my childhood. I understood the time that these were written, but I did find the repetitiveness of "being pretty" and "pretty princess" was tedious. I want girls with wit and character and adventure, not idly standing for their princes to come and save them. It was a great review of yesterday's fairy tales thou [...]